History and institutions of the Fifth Republic

The birth of the Fifth Republic

The new Constitution was elaborated by the 39 members (16 from the
Assembly, 10 from the Council of the Republic and 13 appointed by the
government) of the Comité consultatif constitutionnel.
The proposal was officially presented on 4 September 1958 on Place de
la Ré'publique in Paris. On 28 September 1958, the proposal
was massively approved by 72.95% of the voters. Algeria and all of
the African colonies, except Guinea, also approved the proposal.

The main author of the Constitution is probably Michel
Debré, who said: 'When De Gaulle was not happy with something
in the 1958 Consitution, he told me: This is yours!, when he was
happy with something else, he told me: this is mine!.'

The Constitution of 1958

The President of the Republic should be the defender of the
national independence and assume the continuity of the state. He
should be elected by a college of 80,000 members, including
Parliament Members, General Councillors, Mayors and Municipal
Councillors. He should appoint the Prime Minister, could dissolve the
Assembly, and canvass the people's opinion by referendum. In case of
a serious crisis, the President could receive the full powers after
consultation of the Consitutional Council. This controversial article
16 was evidently motivated by the Algerian situation. The government
should be appointed by the Prime Minister after consultation of the
President of the Republic. The government should be responsible,
i.e. the Parliament could defeat it. In order to suppress the
'regime of the parties', the Deputees should no longer be elected
according to the list system, but according to a two-round uninominal
system and on a majority basis.

The presidential election was scheduled on 21 December 1958. De
Gaulle obtained 78.5% of the votes, the communist Marrane 13.1% and
the leftist Chatelet 8.4%.

On 12 September 1962, a press release of the Council of Ministers
announced a constitutional referendum on the mode of election of the
President of the Republic. The opposition claimed that the proposed
election of the President by universal suffrage would remind the
plebiscites of the Second Empire and
increase excessively the personal powers of the President. On 28
October, 62.25% of the voters approved the amendment but 23% of the
electors did not vote.

Presidential elections according to this system took place in
1965, 1969, 1974, 1981, 1988, and 1995. The last one took place 2002,
but Jacques Chirac was elected for five years instead of seven,
according to a Consitution amendment approved by referendum in 2000.

The future of the Fifth Republic:
Towards a Sixth Republic?

There are more and more debates about the need of a modernization
of the political system and the creation of a Sixth Republic. The
unexpected cohabitation periods, during which the President of
the Republic faced a Prime Minister with opposed political ideas
following legislative elections lost by the President's party (First
cohabitation (1986-1988), President F. Mitterrand [Socialist] vs.
Prime Minister J. Chirac [Conservative]; second cohabitation
(1993-1995), President F. Mitterrand [Socialist] vs. Prime Minister
E. Balladur [Conservative]; third cohabitation (1997-2002),
President J. Chirac [Conservative] vs. Prime Minister L. Jospin
[Socialist] ) examplified some of the weaknesses of the Presidential
system. The system had in fact been planned by De Gaulle to allow him
to exercise a strong personal power in association with an allied
Parliament, and Conservatives hardly believed they could lose the
power before May 1981.

More recently, the Constitutional status of the President has been
questionned because J. Chirac refused to testify upon request of
judges concerning cases in which his party was involved, claiming
that he would have been pleased to testify if his Presidential status
had allow it.

However, a dramatic revision of the Constitution and the
proclamation of the Sixth Republic seems today very improbable.

Ivan Sache, 9 July 2001

Presidential flags

Charles de Gaulle (1959-1969)

by Ivan Sache

One source depicts de Gaulle's presidential standard as a
tricolour with a red Cross of Lorraine in the white panel and with a
golden fringe (Hans-Ulrich Herzog and Fritz Wolf, Flaggen und
Wappen, Leipzig, 1966), while another source says he had his
initials under the cross without informing about the colours of the
letters (Pedersen [ped70]).

Jan Oskar Engene, 17 September1996

In the Archive of the National Navy Commissariat (Naval Supply
Service) in Toulon, they present the presidential mark of President
de Gaulle, with in the middle of the white stripe the letters C G in
gold, and underneath the red Lorraine cross.

Armand Noël du Payrat , 30 June 1998

Georges Pompidou (1969-1974)

In the Fifth Republic it seems most presidents have made up their
own designs. The only exception, as far as I know, was Georges
Pompidou. He had his initials in yellow on a tricolour in proportions
30:33:37, according to Pedersen
[ped70].

Jan Oskar Engene, 17 September1996

Valéry Giscard d'Estaing
(1974-1981)

Valéry Giscard d'Estaing replaced the initials with a
lictors' fasces, which was often erroneously interpreted as a
Petainist francisque.

Ivan Sache, 29 June 1998

François Mitterrand
(1981-1995)

François Mitterrand replaced the initials FM in his first
flag with a 'mix' of oak and olive-tree to symbolize Northern and
Southern France.

Note that flags of both the President and the Prime Minister are
erroneously depicted as rectangular in Talocci's French edition
[tal93].